The ONS report found that half of all employers in the tourism, catering and food sector use "non-guaranteed hours contracts". Photograph: Alamy

The number of zero-hours contracts has reached 1.4 million, according to official data on Wednesday that piled pressure on Vince Cable, the business secretary, to provide more safeguards for workers with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay.

More than one in 10 employers are using such contracts, which are most likely to be offered to women, young people and people over 65. The survey showed that almost half of all employers in the tourism, catering and food sector use contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours. Retail and the care industry are also big users of zero-hours deals.

Labour called on Cable to adopt its plans to clamp down on abuses of casual employment contracts, blamed for creating job insecurity and pushing down wages. Chuka Umunna, shadow business secretary, described the figures from the Office for National Statistics as shocking and a reminder that the government was "failing to deliver a balanced recovery that works for all".

He said: "We will outlaw zero-hours contracts where they exploit people, ensuring that people at work are protected and get a fair deal. It's time the Tory-led government matched our plans."

Last autumn the ONS, using a survey of employees, estimated that 583,000 people had zero-hours contracts. The new data comes from a survey of employers and has revealed that the trend for hiring staff without guaranteeing a minimum number of hours is far more common than initially thought.

Cable has commissioned a study into the use of the contracts, the findings of which he said would be published shortly. He said: "I welcome the further clarity on zero-hour contracts provided by the ONS. Their own analysis shows that these types of contract can provide important and flexible employment opportunities that suit most people in these jobs and provide an average of 25 hours' work a week.

"However, it is also clear there has been some abuse of those on zero-hours contracts by some less scrupulous employers. Given the current estimates of people on these types of contracts, it is important we take action."

A report by the National Institute of Economic & Social Research added to the government's discomfort by showing that Britain's youngest workers have suffered an unprecedented fall in real wages since 2008. For those under 25, pay was down more than 14% and at levels last seen 16 years ago, in 1998. For workers aged 25-29, real weekly wages, adjusted for inflation, were down 12% at 1999 levels, according to the thinktank.

Real weekly wages overall have fallen by about 8% since 2008, equivalent to a fall in annual earnings of about £2,000 for a typical worker in Britain.

Critics of zero-hours contracts have argued that, far from being a response of employers to the financial crash, they signal a more fundamental shift to casual employment, especially in the public sector. The care industry employs more than 160,000 staff on zero-hours contracts, while hospitals have switched in the past two years to insisting that large numbers of workers, including anaesthetists and radiologists, are grouped in "banks" from which they bid to fill upcoming rotas.

The TUC said the figures showed the jobs market was far more precarious than the government suggested, and urged ministers to crack down on the abuse of zero-hours contracts by employers.

"Insecure work with no guarantee of regular paid hours is no longer confined to the fringes of the jobs market," said Frances O'Grady, its general secretary.

"It is worrying that so many young people are trapped on zero-hours contracts, which can hold back their careers and make it harder to pay off debts like student loans. The fact that these contracts have become the norm in tourism, catering and food will be a major concern for the millions of people employed in these industries."

Ed Miliband said last week that the contracts, which often tie a worker to a single company but in return do not guarantee employment from week to week, had reached "epidemic" levels as employers sought to exploit laws allowing flexible working.

The Labour leader said workers with irregular shifts and pay should get a contract with fixed hours if they had worked regularly for the same employer for a year.

Responding to the latest figures from the ONS, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said zero-hours contracts were only one element of a national issue of poverty among people who have jobs.

Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the foundation, said: "Zero-hours contracts are just one aspect of the UK's problem with in-work poverty. We have workers unable to get enough hours to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and not being offered training and development by their employer, leaving them stuck in dead-end jobs.

"Tackling in-work poverty requires the nature of jobs at the bottom of the labour market to change, alongside reform to the welfare system."

About 13% of employers reported some use of zero-hours contracts. In the tourism, catering and food sectors, the contracts were in use by almost half of all businesses.

Retailer Sports Direct and JD Wetherspoons have admitted that most of their staff are on zero-hours deals, which are also common in the hospitality, leisure and transport industries. The contracts are more commonly used by large companies than small businesses.

Zero-hours contracts were found in the survey to be relatively rare among workers in the financial and professional services and the manufacturing, energy and agricultural sectors.

The ONS said 1.4 million people worked at least a few hours on zero-hours contracts in a two-week period in January, while a further 1.3 million contracts were discovered where employees were not given any hours.

• This article was amended on 1 May 2014. The earlier version said the "number of workers on zero-hours contracts has almost tripled to 1.4 million since last year's estimate", and that the "ONS update shows a huge increase since last autumn, when it estimated that 583,000 people had zero-hours contracts." In fact the latest figure, based on a survey of employers, is for the number of contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours; it is not directly comparable with last autumn's estimate of the number of workers on zero-hours contracts, which was based on a survey of employees. The earlier version of the article also said incorrectly that the recent survey "showed half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work". Almost half of all employers in that sector use "non-guaranteed hours contracts", but only around a quarter of employees in the sector are on them.